


Constants and Variables

by rosemusiclive



Category: Hat Films - Fandom, The Yogscast
Genre: Guns, Multi, Set in 1912, Time Travel, bioshock infinite au, dimension hopping, slight racism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 01:45:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4545393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosemusiclive/pseuds/rosemusiclive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nanosounds is the best hitwoman in Columbia, and has two new targets: the Lutece twins. Nonsense and adventure ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Into The Rabbit Hole

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the world of Bioshock Infinite. Playing the game is not necessary to the fic but some bits are already explained or just make more sense. All you really need to know is that Columbia is a floating city above the clouds, it is set in 1912, and nothing and everything makes sense.

_"The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist"_  
_\- R. Lutece_

\---

When Nano was little, she used to play with stones. She would position them to make pictures, or create towers from the flat ones. As her child brain evolved, Nano began to find it more fun to knock down these structures than create them. The building became boring, and Nano now needed someone to build for her, so that she could destroy. 

As it turned out, most of the other children did not appreciate their creations being so easily knocked down, so Nano learned to do it from afar, hiding and launching her stones from roof tops or dark alleyways when they weren't looking. Somehow, this was even more entertaining, the adrenaline from the risk of being caught was almost euphoric. In any case, it was a way to pass the time.

Her mother used to scold her when Nano got caught, so Nano stopped getting caught. The other children refused to play with her anyway. No parent wanted their child interacting with a half breed. The mixing of whites and colours was prohibited in Columbia, and Nano was an obvious break of these rules. People in the street frowned at her. Her father was taken before she even knew him. The other children shouted or threw things at her. Nano soon learned to stay out of sight.

Growing up in the Shantytown of Columbia, Nano often found fantastic places to hide. The floating city’s Skyrail was easy enough to operate, and Nano soon became more comfortable with the roofs of the old houses than the ground. She remembers when she was younger, around eleven years old or so, watching the fireworks on New Year’s Eve from the roof of the Fink Factory. The sounds of people cheering as the clock rolled over into the new millennium still resonate with her today. 

Columbia was a brilliant city. A scientific marvel, filled to the brim with selectivist ideas and the best American qualities that the world of 1912 could offer. All detached from the ground below and risen into the air in some form of estranged simulation of heaven. The history books may claim that the prophet had ascended Columbia and lead the chosen towards the light of the lord, but Nano knew that it was less God’s work, and more the work of one incredible scientist discovering quantum particles suspended in a fixed location in time and space.

She wonders now, adjusting her sniper rifle so she has a clearer shot on the very scientist herself, Rosalind Lutece’s, head, if where she is was inevitable. She bets psychologist would have a right good argument about nature and nurture over her. She supposes it is irrelevant. She is what she is. A killer. No changing that. 

The air around her is stuffy, as it would be in the roof of an old house, and Nano resists the urge to cough. Her purple necktie itches slightly, and Nano hopes the other Lutece will show up soon. She was contracted to end both of them, just the one would not be enough. Never be enough.

Enough. Enough enough _enough enough._

_It’s never enough!_

She shakes her head, dispelling the echoes of old memories. Beneath the rafters she lays on, Rosalind Lutece talks to herself.

“Ah but dear friend, you see that two heads are better than one. Three are better than two. Four are better than three. And it goes on so forth. But where is the stop? One can not have a mind equal to several others, unless they work in harmony. But what has harmony got to do with it anyway?”

Nano rolls her eyes. The woman has been talking about this for a while now. Going on about four heads and harmony. There have been mentions of other concepts too. Liberty, serenity, xenophobia, longevity, trust, solitude. Nano hasn't paid much attention, but it’s hard not to listen in when you've been camping out in someone’s roof for several hours. 

The woman below her pauses, and sets down her tools. She has been tinkering with a small sphere for a while now, Nano has no idea what it is and has no inclination to find out.

“You finally decide to join me, brother.”

Nano grins. The other Lutece. About time.

There is a small shudder in the room beneath her, and then a man is standing there. He seems to be a male reflection of Rosalind, and Nano knows this is Robert Lutece. He seems to have just blinked into existence, but Nano puts it down to a trick of the light.

“Sister.” He nods politely, removing his hat and placing it next to the sphere. “How goes the work?”

“It goes.” Rosalind replies simply. “Shall we start?”

“Let’s.” 

And they begin. Working in tandem, they both start tinkering with the contraption in the centre of the room. With nothing better to do, Nano had been inspecting it for a while now. It seems to be a large glass sphere with two metal, twisting pylons injected into either side. There is a control panel on the outside, next to a small door for entering and exiting the sphere. Inside, a red tartan armchair sits between the two pylons.

“Power.” Robert reports, pulling a lever on the control panel. The pylons start to whir loudly, and sparks begin to fly between them.

“Glasses on.” Rosalind commands, and both of them place their protective goggles over their eyes. 

“Tearing now.” Robert announces, as he presses several buttons on the control panel.

The sparks created by the pylons increase, and become full beams of electricity shooting around the sphere. A loud crackling sound is heard, and Nano watches in wonder as reality _splits_ at the seams. The machines are loud as the fabric of the world _rips,_ creating a small tear in the centre of the sphere, encompassing the armchair and replacing it with something… _else._

“Tear is stabilized.” Robert says, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead. The gauges on the control panel flick about.

“Any sign of her?” Rosalind asks.

“The girl?”

“The woman.”

“Neither.” Robert says, peering into the tear. “Though I suppose she’s around.”

Nano is unable to tear her gaze away from the rip in reality as it glows and shudders. It looks like the armchair, but is devoid of all colour. There is something off about it.

“You suppose?” Rosalind questions.

“Of course.”

“Well then I suppose we should take a look inside.”

“I suppose so.”

Nano watches as her targets open the door to the sphere and step inside the tear, vanishing almost instantly. She gasps soundlessly as the room cracks and the tear is gone. The machines power down and it is quiet once more.

She is left in silence, trying to comprehend the fact that her targets just disappeared through a goddamn _tear in reality._

Gritting her teeth and pushing her suspension of disbelief to impossible measures, Nano leaps down from the roof through the small gap just above a pile of crates in the corner of the room. Approaching the control panel cautiously, the tattooed letters on the back of her left hand almost seem to twitch in nervousness. S.T.R.N.

Nano sighs, and brushes some of the dust off her waistcoat. She adjusts the necktie under the collar of her shirt, and pushes the folded sleeves back up to her elbows. Bending down, she tightens the buckles on her leather boots and adjusts her slightly-too-tight trousers. She straps her sniper rifle into the case on her back, and pulls out her pistol from it’s leg holster. Nano reloads it’s half empty clip and puts it back. Pulling her hair out of it’s bun, she runs a hand through it before tying it up again, this time tighter. Cricking her neck and rolling her shoulders back, Nano grimaces at the machine.

She can't let them get away. She _can’t._ The payload from this hit could get her out of this godforsaken city. She wants to see Paris.

Picking up a spare pair of safety goggles from the workbench to her left, she flips the power switch and watches the pylons start to crackle into life. She looks down to the control panel and tries to replay the steps Robert Lutece’s hands took only moments before. Pressing a sequence of several buttons and hoping for the best, Nano steps back and places the goggles over her eyes. 

Once again, the pylons beam out electricity and the room shudders as the tear is again ripped open. Cautiously, Nano opens the sphere door and steps towards it. As she gets closer, the rip shakes and glows brighter, until it almost blinds her. She closes her eyes as the light becomes too intense, and when she opens them the tear is gone. And so is the sphere. She is somewhere else now.

Back in the Lutece household, the tear crackles and disappears, the room going silent once more. There is a moment of pause, before the lab door is opened and two sets of footsteps echo inside. 

“Well, that’s interesting.” Rosalind concludes, inspecting the hole in the roof where Nano was hiding.

“She went in.” Robert says, taking his hat off and placing it on top of the one already sitting next to the sphere. “Fascinating.”

“She had to.”

“Had she?”

“Perhaps.”

“Perhaps not.”

“I guess we'll see.”

“Indeed.” Robert nods, staring at the tartan armchair in the middle of the sphere. It rustles in uncertainty.


	2. Fire hair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nano steps through into a Columbia that is not hers. A spaceman falls from the sky.

_“God has no intention of setting a limit to the efforts of man to conquer space.”  
\- Pope Pius XII_

__

\---

__

Coughing and stumbling, Nano finds herself collapsing on the floor of the Luteces’ lab. She gasps for air and looks around, whipping out her pistol just in case. It is quiet. 

__

The area she has ended up in looks just like the Luteces’ lab, but without any sign of the Luteces ever existing. There are no tools. No machinery. No mathematical scribblings on blackboards or hum of electricity in the air. Only the eerie emptiness of silence. Nano stands, and slowly puts her pistol away. 

__

Cautiously, Nano steps towards the door, and exits the lab. The rest of the house is quiet also, and seems bare without the cluttering of books or the distant sound of a phonograph far away. This sets Nano on edge, and she resists the urge to make as much sound as possible. Trying to displace the quiet. 

__

This seems real enough, but there is definitely something _off_ about the whole experience. She supposes that this is because she seems to be in another dimension. The air tastes odd.

__

She pauses at the front door of the Lutece household, pressing her ear up against it for any sign of sound. There is nothing. Slowly, she opens the door, and steps outside.

__

It is Columbia, there’s no mistaking it. The fact that they are still floating in the sky is evidence enough of that. There is no one around, and the streets are bare. But there is something, something Nano can’t quite put her finger on, and she swears she can hear something in the distance. Is that? Shouting?

__

“Heads up!” A voice yells from above her. And Nano finally has the sense to look up. 

__

Above her, another Columbia floats, a reflection of the one she currently stands upon, but this one is bustling with life. People are scattered across the streets. Cargo loads zoom along the Skylines. Blimps float between the ever-shifting buildings. It is a reflection of the Columbia she knows, positioned upside-down above her. Nano barely has time to take this all in however, before a large ginger man is sailing towards her.

__

She quickly leaps to the side as he lands, on his feet, where she was standing a merely seconds before. 

__

“What the hell?” Nano yells, looking up at the man in disbelief. He has his back to her, and Nano notices that the back of his long forest green coat displays a map of the solar system. Turning towards her, Nano is met with cerulean eyes and fiery hair. His ruffled shirt and waistcoat combination elegantly match the fitted striped trousers and laced boots.

__

“You're here!” He grins excitedly, splitting a smile that shines like a crescent moon. “Fantastic!”

__

He starts towards her, and Nano takes a few steps back in caution, raising her pistol at him. 

__

“Woah.” The guy smiles, putting up his hands. “No need for violence here.”

__

“Who are you?” Nano growls at him, still backing up. “Where the hell am I?”

__

“Columbia! Of course!” He grins, as if it’s obvious. “Now let’s go, before we drift too far away.”

__

“Drift too far away?” Nano asks. “What?”

__

“We're crashing.” The guy states. “Obviously.”

__

Nano looks up, and notices the other Columbia floating farther away. They were sinking?

__

“Come on!” The guy says again, offering his hand to Nano. 

__

“What?” Was this guy crazy? “Tell me what’s going on.” She demands, and the man rolls his eyes.

__

“You always do this.” He mumbles, before looking her dead in the eye.

__

“My name is Smith, and you are Nano. You have travelled to an alternate dimension in search of Rosalind and Robert Lutece, who you have been contracted to kill.”

__

“How...?” Nano questions.

__

“No time for that!” He interrupts desperately. “This dimension just happens to have two opposite versions of Columbia. One is filled with life and is rising into the sky, the other is desolate and is crashing into the ground. And if you don’t take my hand now, we will both be going down with this ship. Got it?”

__

Nano, too overwhelmed to form any sort of coherent words, simply nods, and grabs the guy’s - Smith’s - outstretched hand.

__

“Fantastic.” He says again, his eyes sparkling. He pulls her close to him, and grins down at her. “Hold on tight.”

__

Nano barely has a chance to question before he takes of running, his twinkling laugh peppering the air behind them. Roughly tugged along behind him, Nano can doesn’t even have a chance to gasp as he pulls them both over the edge.

__

Nano can't help letting out a scream as they plummet towards to earth, wind whistling past her ears. Over the sound of the air, Nano can hear Smith’s continued laugh as he pulls her close to him. Regretting her decision to blindly trust a stranger, Nano clings to him closely and assumes he knows what he is doing and isn't just some wackjob. She hears the sound of ripping below them, and Smith grabs her tightly.

__

They stop falling, and Nano finds herself being held in Smith’s arms just above the ground he’s suddenly standing on. People bustle around them as Smith gently lets her down.

__

“What…” Nano trails off, dazed by the the sudden shift in space. She looks up to see the other city crumbling into the ground. “How?”

__

“Explanations later.” Smith says, grabbing Nano by the hand once more. “This way.”

__

He leads her through the now busy streets of Columbia, twisting and turning through the crowds. The people don't seem phased by the odd duo, and many ignore their existence all together. This makes a nice change, and Nano is surprised she doesn't get more odd looks because of the colour of her skin. 

__

They end up in a small alleyway, away from the hustle and bustle of the streets. It’s only then that Smith seems to stop for breath. Nano leans against the wall opposite him, and frowns.

__

“Explain.” She commands. He sighs.

__

“Listen, you need to get to the Luteces, right?” He asks, she nods simply. “Well I’m trying to get somewhere too. I was split up from my two partners, and I need to find them again. We both need to travel to different dimensions to find other people, so why don't we help each other?”

__

“That doesn't explain anything!” Nano cries.

__

“What’s there to explain?” Smith fires back. “This world doesn't care about how or when, it cares about what. And I've just told you what. The what is: you are here, in this dimension, with me, and we are both looking for a way out, so why not go together?”

__

“But how did you know all that stuff about me?”

__

“Does that matter?” Smith asks. “I couldn't explain that to you if I tried.”

__

“Why should I trust you anyway?” Nano questions, this guy is majorly pushing her patience.

__

“Why wouldn't you?” Smith responds, meeting her eye. They share a moment, and Nano somehow knows that one way or another she'll end up going with this guy.

__

“Right.” Nano sighs. “But just know, I'm only helping you for my sake. I just want to get out of this crazy place and kill the Luteces.”

__

Smith nods, and Nano sighs, holstering her pistol. “So where exactly are we going? And what exactly are we running from?”

__

“This world isn't meant for me.” Smith says, checking the exit of the alley. “The people here, they don’t see me, but they know I'm not supposed to be here. The world itself is falling apart. You saw.” He gestures up, and Nano looks to see the crashed city of Columbia into the ground above them.

__

“That was you?” She gasps.

__

“This world is rejecting me.” Smith says solemnly. “I can’t exist here, and I need to leave before I destroy this world completely.”

__

“Another tear.” Nano wonders aloud. “You think there’s one we can go through?”

__

“Listen.” Smith commands. “Listen properly.”

__

They fall quiet, and listen intently to the sounds around them. At first Nano hears the general hubbub of the city. The chatter of citizens, the roar of the balloons, the vague sounds of a phonograph in the distance. Then, farther away, somewhere above the sounds of the city and below the clouds, a high pitched crackling sound.

__

“That crackling sound…” She mutters. He nods.

__

“It’s in the Observatory, near Emporia.”

__

“How do you know?” She questions, he looks at her funnily.

__

“Because that’s how I got here, silly.” Smith grins, and his tone kinda makes Nano want to punch him.

__

“But then why did you come here in the first place?” Nano questions, trying to find some logic in his madness.

__

“To get you.” He says. Plain and simple. Nano gives up.

__

“Right.” She says, at this point refusing to care about whatever the hell is wrong with this guy, just wanting to get the hell out of here. “Of course.”

__

“Great.” He grins, stepping forward and pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. “Let’s g- ow!”

__

Acting in pure reflex, Nano has spun Smith around and pinned his wrist to his back, her other hand pressed against the back of his neck.

__

“Sorry! Sorry!” Smith cries, wincing in pain. “I forget you've never done this before.”

__

“And you _have?”_ She growls. The crazy dimensional hopping and rambling mad men she can handle, blatant invasion of personal space is an entirely different issue.

__

“Again.” Smith says. “Kind of hard to explain.”

__

Nano lets out an exasperated sigh and shakes her head. She lets her grip on Smith lessen, and slowly steps away from him.

__

“Don't do that again.” She warns.

__

“Right.” Smith nods, rubbing his neck in pain. “Let’s go.”

__

He turns to his left, and clasps his hands together as if in prayer. Slowly, carefully, he pulls his hands away from each other. The muscles on his arms strain, as if some great force is pushing his hands together. As his hands separate, a ripping sound can be heard, and Nano watches in disbelief as a tear is created in front of her eyes.

__

It is different to the one in the Lutece Lab, as the inside is coloured rather than monochrome and grainy. Where the tear she came through was very literally a tear, a sort of line with jagged edges, this is rounded and smooth, as if she is looking into a snow globe rather than a rip in some paper.

__

“You can create tears?” She mumbles, staring at the different reality only a few feet away from her. It looks like the carousel in Emporia, she remembers it from her childhood. It was rare that she and her mother left Shantytown, so going to the carousel was always a highlight for her. Soft carnival music can be heard from the ride. Children laugh somewhere.

__

“Not exactly.” He shrugs. “Tears are rips in space, time and reality. They are an entirely new dimension. I'm more of a space-only type of guy.”

__

“So this is… here?” Nano asks. She slowly stretches out her arm, and reaches her hand across the boundary of the tear. A light breeze caresses her palm, where in the alley, the air is still.

__

“Yup.” Smith smiles, glad she is beginning to understand. “Think of it more as a shortcut than a literal door to another dimension.”

__

“Okay.” Nano says, already giving up on asking any questions. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

__

And they both step through.

__


End file.
